Equipment for clothes-closets.



L. C. HUNTER.

EQUIPMENT FOR CLOTHES CLOSETS.

APPLICATION FILED MAR. 31. (916.

Patented June 5, 1917.

2 SHEETS-SHEET L c. HUNTER.

EQUIPMENT FOR CLOTHES CLOSETS.

APPLICATION FILED MAR. 31. 1916'.

98,560 Patented June 5, 1917.

2 SHEETS-SHEET 2.

e/ H, 5/ Q 0 7 II, a Q :0 D B 1 Q re LEWIS G; HUNTER, 0F DETROIT, MICHIGAN.

JEQ'UEMEN'I' FOE CLOTHES-GLOSETS.

Specification of Letters Patent.

Application filed March 31., 1916. Serial No. 87,897.

To all whom it may concern:

Be it known that I, LEWIS O. HUNTER, a citizen of the United States, residing at Detroit, county of Wayne, State of Michigan, have invented a certain new and useful Improvement in Equipment for Clothes- Olosets, and declare the following to be a full, clear, and exact description of the same, such as will enable others skilled in the art to which it pertains to make and use the same, reference being had to the accompanying drawings, which form a part of this specification.

This invention relates to a combined closet and disappearing rack for holding garments and other articles of wearing apparel. In connection with this combination a stack of rotatable drawers is employed to make available for use as much of the closet space as possible in which the rack is arranged to disappear. This will more fully appear in the description following.

In the drawings,-

Figure 1 is a horizontal cross section of the closet showing a rack and stack of drawers in plan view.

Fig. 2 is a. vertical cross section of the closet showing the floor tray rotated out of the closet.

Fig. 3 is a vertical, cross section of the closet showing a stack of drawers in elevation.

Fig. 4 is a plan View of the rotating floor tray.

Fig. 5 is a vertical cross section of the rack spindle and the floor tray hub.

In small compartments very little room is ordinarily available for closet space, and it is the purpose of this invention to make the best use of such space as is available for closet purposes. Ordinarily the space allotted for the closet will be rectangular and to the end of utilizing to the best advantage all of this space, I provide a rotatable sectional rack anda stack of rotatable drawers arranged to make available the space that would be left vacant when the rotating rack is installed in a rectangular closet.

The closet wall will be designated a; b

is the door frame; 0 the door. The rack spindle d comprises a rod having at its upper end a thimble e by which the rod may be rotatably secured to the horizontal upper member of the door frame 6. The lower end Patented June 5, 1917.

of the spindle is properly alined and rotatably held in place by the collar 7 screwed to the floor.

The sectional rack is made up of three separately rotatable elements-the floor tray 9, the garment hanger h and the top tray 2'. These three rotatable sections can also each be locked to the rotating spindle so that they all rotate together with the spindle. This arrangement is effected by supporting the trays and garment hanger upon a thrust bearing 7', the upper thrust bearing y of the garment hanger being provided with ball bearings k on account of the heavy load on this bearing. These thrust bearings j are all fastened to the spindle- The lowermost thrust bearing (Fig. 5) also carries the entire load of the spindle and is rotatable upon the balls Z which in turn rotate upon the ring m resting on the collar f which is secured to the floor.

It will be seen that each one of the ro tatable elements is quite similarly constructed (Figs. 1 and 4) comprising a tubular iron frame possibly best described as a truncated semi-circle, that is, a semi-circle,

with about one-quarter cut ofl' at one end to make it conform to the rectangular closet. Of course, just the amount cut of? would depend largely upon the longitudinal depth of the closet from the am's of the rack. If the closet in this depth were somewhat greater than that shown in Fig. 1, then a complete semi-circular rack could be used. Of course the stack of drawers hereinafter to be described would be useless but there will be considerable space wastage in the rear right hand corner. Hence it is better to construct the rack with truncated semi-circular frames as is shown in Fig. 1, and so place the door opening that the left hand side of the closet can be utilized for the stack of swinging drawers to be described.

, Again referring to the details of the frames, they are made up of tubing forming a truncated semi-circular margin and cross rod n. This whole frame is supported upon a special casting forming a hub 32 which is really a sleeve that engages about the spindle (Z and which has a pair of projecting webs g terminating in a pipe T 7' to receive the tubing. This pipe T is not needed in the trays and a union .9 is used instead.

Referring to Fig. 2, it will be seen that cross rods 72. are bent at their ends to lower the floor strips of the trays below the tub ing that forms the margin of the frame. This gives the trays a shallow basket characteristic which is better calculated to retain articles placed upon them.

Now referring to Fig. 5, one of the springlocking pins will be found detailed. It comprises a dowel pin 20 held in a suitable opening in the hub by the fiat spring '22. When this opening in the hub comes into concentric relation with the perforation w in the spindle d, the spring forces the dowel pin end into this perforation, and therefore, locks the hub, and consequently the tray, to the spindle. Fi 2 indicates the presence of one of these sprlng locks for each rotating section. Hence when it is desired to rotate only one of the sections out, all that it is necessary to do is to grasp the top of the flat spring which is formed to afford a handle, and pull out the spring dowel pin and rotate the element out into the room where access to the tray is more convenient. The floor tray is shown so rotated in Fig. 2.

The spring pawl m (Fig. 2) is pivoted to the door frame and has a nose engaging against the upper thrust collar j which is provided with a plurality of perforations to lock the rotating spindle in various positions in its swinging arc. The chain is attachedto the pawl so that when it is desired to rotate the whole spindle, one merely has to'pull down the chain and rotate the entire spindle and its three elements to the position he desires.

Referring to Fig. 3, a stack of swinging drawers is shown. These are located in the left hand end of the closet which would ordinarily be space that could not be conveniently utilized. It may have a trapeziform shape to make the most of the space left by the truncated semi-circular frames. Some half dozen or more drawers 3 are supported upon the spindle a by the straps Z which have hubs that engage about the spindle. They 'may be rotated through a uarter of an arc to the position shown in the dotted lines of Fig. 1 so that access can be had to any one of the drawers at the door opening.

What I claim is:

1. The combination of a closet with a door opening and closet space to one side of the door opening, a rack adapted to rotate in and out of the said closet space through the door opening, the said rack comprising a rotatable spindle located at the side of the door opening adjacent the said closet space, one or more trays rotatable upon the spindle, and a garment hanger rotatable upon the spindle. I

2. The combination of a closet, with a door opening and closet space to one side of the door opening, a rack adapted to rotate in and out of the said closet space through the door opening and comprising a rotatable spindle located at the side of the door opening adjacent the said closet space, one or more trays and a garment hanger rotatable upon the spindle, and means for'locking each of these rotating members to the spindle to prevent independent rotation.

3. The combinat-ionof a closet with a door opening and closet space to one side of the door opening, and a rack adapted to rotate in and out ofthe said closet space through the door opening on an axis at the side of the door opening adjacent the said closet space and made up of one or more frames.

4. The combination of a closet with adoor opening and closet space. to one side of the door opening and a rack adapted to rotate in and out of the said closet space through the door opening on an axis at the side of the door opening adjacent the said closet space and comprising one or more tubular frames in outline similar to a truncated semi-circle.

5-. The combination of a closet with a door opening and closet space to one side of the door opening, a rotating rack adapted to swing in and out of the said closet space through the door opening on an axis at the side of the door opening adjacent the said closet space, and a stack of drawers swinging on a pivot arranged in the end of the closet opposite the end into which the rack swings.

6. The combination of a closet with a door opening and closet space to one side of the door opening, a rotating rack adapted to swing in and out of the said closet space through the door opening on an axis at the side of the door opening adjacent the .said closet space, said rack being made up of one or more frames in general outline the shape of a truncated semi-circle, and a plurality of drawers arranged to swing on apivot in the space left at the end of the closet opposite the end into which the 'rotatable rack swings.

7. The combination of a closet with a door opening and closet space to one side circular shape, and a plurality of swinging of the door opening, a rotating rack adapttrapezi-form drawers located in the end of ed to swing in and out of the said closet the closet opposite the end into which the 1;

space through the door opening on an axis rotating rack swings.

at the side of the door opening adjacent the In testimony whereof, I sign this specifisaid closet space, said rack being madenp cation.

of one or more frames of truncated semi- LEWIS C. HUNTER. 

